Demos

Old at being young
Young at being old
Everything’s on hold within our evolution

Barenaked Ladies

When I first started selling TV in 1978, there was a big push to get agencies to buy on demo ratings instead of just household impressions.  Over time, the notion of buying on audience segments became more accepted and today it seems as if I hear more about the 18-49 numbers than I do about households.  Except that there’s one problem.There was always a fundamental issue with demos and I think it’s become even more exaggerated over time.  The quote from BNL above gets to my point – nearing my mid-fifties, I’m “younger” than my parents were at this age in terms of behavior and in terms of media and technology usage I’m way younger than many 30 year olds, as are a number of my friends.  We’re in the less-desirable 50+ demo and yet we use Facebook, issue tweets, drink beer, go to rock concerts (and not just “oldies” acts), and hit the movies both in-person and via Netflix pretty much with the same frequency as my 20-ish daughters do.

If I’m selling to me, I’m targeting my behavior, not my demo.  I’m not a huge fan of BT because I think there’s rampant possibility for abuse, but as a practical matter it makes way more sense in terms of online behavior than does the standard age survey.  It doesn’t, however, really get at other media nor at non-media behavior.

Someone is going to find the Rosetta Stone that ties traditional and digital media behavior together in a way that gets beyond my age and income and into a conversation with me about who I really am and how I really consume.  Despite what Nielsen and others would have you believe, it’s not here yet.

Any of you think there’s a good solution out there?